Thursday, June 22, 2006

Sports Illustrated looks at some of the fallout from the Duke lacrosse case:

THE ACCUSED

"It was a lottery drawing," [Duke lacrosse captain] Matt Zash says. "We know it could be any one of us."

THE ACCUSER

...two weeks ago, The New York Times cited Travis as saying that his daughter was undergoing psychological treatment and was in no condition to testify.

"I don't know where they got that," Travis says now. "A lot of times we hear stuff about [her] in the paper that we hadn't heard before."

Asked about her state of mind, Travis says, "I think she'll testify. That's just my feeling."

The accuser's mother went last month to Carrboro, N.C., to meet famed Florida lawyer Willie Gary, raising the possibility of a civil suit against the players or the university, which purchased the lacrosse players' house just a month before the party.

THE PROSECUTOR

"I don't understand how he can prosecute this case," says one Durham lawyer who supported Nifong's reelection. "It's a travesty."

THE COACH

So far, no one has taken a more obvious hit from the case than the 46-year-old Pressler, the 2005 national coach of the year, a man who had spent the last 16 years building the Duke program to the highest level. On April 5 he woke up still thinking he could salvage the season. Then, around noon, news broke of McFadyen's e-mail, which described how he would kill and skin a stripper at the next party while gratifying himself in his "Duke issue spandex." Few outside the team knew that McFadyen's twisted boast was a takeoff on American Psycho, the Bret Easton Ellis novel that will be taught in at least two classes at Duke this fall...

THE SCHOOL

the factor that made the rape case such a media sensation, that gave it the legs for its continuing run across the cable universe, was the school's long-standing and at times obnoxiously trumpeted sense of itself.